Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Online July 12, 2012

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. These protections are balanced by the Privacy Rule’s permitted disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other specified purposes. The HIPAA Security Rule specifies a series of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for covered entities to use to assure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) advocates on behalf of our Fellows on a variety of topics related to HIPAA.